TENNYSON'S CENTENARY.

Dominion, Volume 2, Issue 581, 9 August 1909, Page 4

TENNYSON'S CENTENARY.

A cablegram which appears in another column states that English newspapers are publishing appreciations in commemoration of the centenary of ■ Tennyson. This year 1909 is'quite remarkable for'its great centenaries, including those of Darwin, Lincoln, Selavyn., Mendelssohn, Gladstone, and Fitzgerald. Wn have already publicly recognised services to mankind of a great'statesman, a great scientist, and a great churchman, and it is only in accordance' with the fitness of things that one of thn great poefcs of the Victorian era should be given a similar tribute of a nation's gratitude. The poot has a permanent part to play in human life. He is a standing witness to the fact that man is something more than an unusually clever animal, and is a constant, reminder that ■■ ■

"Ks not the whole of life to live, Nor all of doatli to did. Wβ: all in our quieter moments admit that "the world ia too much with us," and every reasonable man is grateful to the poet for enabling us from "timo to time to forget the struggle for existence by raising our thoughts to. the things of the spirit. The present, ago has become distrustful of mere logic, and wo often' feel that the ppet's instinctive insight is a surer guide to the heart of things than the reasoning of the philosopher. He is also the true democrat. He gets beneath all artificial distinctions and sees man, aa man. ,'.'':'.."

Where is,the poot?' Show him. show him, Muses mino, that I hi ay know him. It is the man who with a man Is an equal, be ho king ■ ' Or. poorest of the beggar clan, Or any other wondrous thing _j A' man may be "twixt ape and Plato." Tennyson has written of 'Shakespeare that-'" ■ ' ."' . . ;;■ •"

Hβ.saw thro' life and death, thro' good and ill; • • ' . ■ ' He saw thro' his own soul; Tho marvel of the universal will ■ An open scroll Before him lay. ■ , . , ■'

AVe can hardly use these words in all their fullness of Tennyson himself. He cannot be placed on the sa.me pinnacle as. Homer and Dante and Shakespeare. These universal geniuses speak to all nations and all fcimos; but Tennyson has won a permanent place in English literature, and that is saying a great deal.